Stepping Out
by auditoryeden
Summary: Donna Moss works in Legislation, now, and the rules have changed. Preceded by Desperate Measures.


A little more than twenty-four hours after Donna finishes her first day of the new job, she's back in the Ops bullpen.

Not for business, though, for the first time ever.

She smiles at Josh's new temp, a harried looking twenty-something guy with a vaguely wild expression in his eyes. "Hang in there," Donna advises him, before slipping through Josh's open door.

Josh himself is not in evidence, and she has to pick up his schedule to discover that he's in an emergency meeting, due back in fifteen minutes. That brings on a little pang of regret; as his assistant she'd been privy to every aspect of his life except the one she wanted most. Now she gets to have that aspect, but losing the others is still rough.

This is the day they've agreed on. In fifteen minutes Josh will come back to this office and the door will stay open and he will kiss her, chastely and appropriately. He'll gather up his coat and his backpack, and they'll leave together, holding hands, and go to dinner, technically their very first date.

This man has been her boyfriend four nearly four years, her lover for one, but there are still butterflies in her stomach. She's been feeling them all day, ever since she caught Josh's eye across the lobby, and watched him smile at her, small and secret. Before that, it'd been pure excitement.

After dinner they'll go home together, to Josh's place, and there they'll make love as a free man and woman.

Or possibly, since Josh has a cold and Donna is feeling drained and exhausted from her first days with actual underlings to manage, they'll snuggle on the couch and watch a movie.

The movie, frankly speaking, would be more novel than the sex.

Her promotion feels like a godsend, even more now than it did when Josh had first told her Leo wanted her to take the job in Legislation. It's not just that she'd grown bored with assistanting; the covert nature of her relationship with Josh had been exciting initially, and just as that luster had truly worn off, their sexual relationship had taken off, and that had served to salve some of the hurts and annoyances of not being allowed to truly be with the man she loved. Those hurts and annoyances weren't gone, though, and every time they had to pull back they got worse. Donna wasn't content with stealthy affection and longing glances anymore; she needed the day-to-day, the domestic, the reliable and public side of their partnership. She needed the right to hold him in hard times and draw comfort from him. She needed him to be allowed to prioritize her. He needed those things, too, had said so again and again, but with their jobs they seemed out of reach.

And then Leo had offered her a different job.

It's amazing how a light at the end makes the tunnel both longer and shorter. When Donna had accepted the position in Legislation they'd decided on a two-week transition period, where she would train her replacement and learn about her own job in turn. Those two weeks were the longest of her life, but they still managed to pass in a whirlwind.

And now they're staging their coming-out, so to speak.

Donna's pretty sure she knows how most of their friends are going to react; not a single one of them will be genuinely surprised, though they might pretend to be. She knows that, although they've been as discreet as possible, they still are and always have been much closer than most colleagues, much more casual, much more comfortable. They'd decided, back during the Transition of 1998, that after their year on the campaign no one would believe a spectre of true professionalism between them, so they went on as they'd begun; flirting, fleeting touches, lingering glances. There are pools in the White House, the OEOB, and in the Secret Service detail, all of which had apparently exploded when Donna switched departments. The main sentiment is probably going to be surprise that Josh didn't sweep her off her feet on her first day at Legislative Affairs, but that would have ended up handing a big pile of cash to some very smug assholes in Hoyne's office, so they'd decided against it.

She sighs and settles into Josh's chair, leans her head back, and lets herself drowse.

"Donna," Josh's voice wakes her, warm and soft by her ear. The backs of his fingers stroke lightly over her cheek, and she smiles, slowly opens her eyes. "You're back," she sighs, and then he's sweeping his thumb down the bridge of her nose and pressing a very sweet, very soft kiss to her mouth. He pulls back after the merest moment, and then leans in again, and kisses her more thoroughly.

It's a glorious distraction, letting him move his mouth over hers and trace her jaw, but Donna is a woman on a mission. "Josh," she says, into his mouth, "We don't want to lose our reservation."

"Yeah, yeah," he acknowledges, punctuating each admission with another small kiss. "I hear you."

"You got your things?" she asks, as he straightens and stretches, his back making some slightly awful wet popping sounds.

"Yeah," he grunts, and picks up his coat from where he's left it on the desk. "You looked so peaceful, I figured I could let you sleep for five minutes."

"Wanna call an early night?" she proposes, and he wrinkles his nose and sniffs as he considers it. "Nah," he decides, warm-eyed. "This is our first date, right? I think I can stay upright."

Donna rolls her eyes at him, but she lets him help her into her coat, nonetheless. There's nothing new about that, it's been one of their subtle shows of affection since the very first day they met, but now she's got an acute awareness of the open office door, and the way he's standing so close, and the fact that they don't have to worry anymore. No one's within sight line, and it wouldn't matter if they were; she doesn't have anything to hide.

Josh's hands are big and warm, smoothing her coat down her shoulders. "Scarf," he demands, gently, and she hands it over, letting him spin her, wrap the length of cashmere around her neck and tuck it into her coat. "I love you," Donna reminds him, and she doesn't bother to keep her voice low. For a moment Josh seems to forget that they're not pretending anymore, and his eyes shift to the open door as his jaw tightens, but then his face lights up, and he says, at a perfectly normal volume, "I love you, too, sweetheart."

"Is that going to be a thing?" Donna asks, handing him his backpack and taking his free hand.

"Sweetheart?" he echoes. "Yeah, I mean, unless you don't like it."

"No, it's fine," she assures him. "I do. I was just wondering. You've never seemed like the kind of guy to use pet names."

"Well, I've always called you Donnatella," he says, as though that's some kind of reasonable explanation. He catches her look and gives her a sideways grin. "Instead of Donna," he extrapolates. "Your full name always seemed like something special." They stand together at the door of his darkened office, hand-in-hand, and survey the bullpen. Only a spare smattering of Ops and Policy people are still haunting their desks, and no one is paying them the slightest mind, besides the temp at Donna's old desk, who is looking satisfyingly pole-axed. Josh smacks him on the shoulder as they pass by. "You should get out of here, Todd," he says, in his best boys-club buddy-buddy tone. The temp gives half a smile before he frowns again. "Tommy," the kid corrects, and Josh throws a final sunny grin over his shoulder as Donna leads him out into the lobby. "Sure thing!"

"You really should try to learn his name," Donna admonishes him gently.

"I'd like to remind you that someone once hired herself as my assistant without actually bothering to learn my first name," Josh teases, but there's no malice behind it, only fondness and reminiscence. "His'll stick eventually."

"You're just as bad as the President," she sighs, and then it's through security, through the doors, and they're walking down the driveway to the gates, a clear, gorgeous night sky above them. Josh puts his arm around her waist, and Donna leans into him without thinking, looking up at the stars. "Wow," she says.

"Yeah," Josh agrees, and she doesn't need to look at him to know he's not watching the sky. "You're a big sap," she tells him. "We've got to get going or we'll be late."


End file.
